She pauses before saying, “From the age of about 14, I’ve had acne-prone skin and I still have it. I get really congested skin. I’ve always got a spot. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t have some kind of pimple on my complexion. I like to look at things with a silver lining. I suppose my problematic skin has set me on this lifelong journey of exploration and education when it comes to leaning into the experts and understanding what works and what doesn’t.”
When Rosie Huntington-Whiteley appears on our Zoom call from her LA home (she relocated from London with her family during the pandemic) she is every inch the off-duty supermodel. Her skin may have the odd pimple but it still looks as though it is permanently bathed in a ring light and her strands are so perfectly blown out, she could easily be the poster girl for the liquid hair trend.
Here she opens up to GLAMOUR about her battle with acne and her approach to skincare; why her new Rose Inc foundation was a personal labour of love and her insider hacks for applying makeup seamlessly.
“I’ve stopped washing my face in the morning”
I just felt like I didn’t really want to be using cleanser in the morning anymore. I want to wake my skin up so I use a reusable cotton round and I sweep rose water all over my face and then I go straight into all my serums and cream. I keep it really simple in the morning with the Rose Inc Brightening Serum, which is probably one of my holy grails, and then the Solar Power Luminous SPF 30 Serum. SPF is a must – I think you just realise when you hit your thirties, you cannot skip that at all .”
“Our new soft matte foundation creates that luminous lit-from-within candlelit glow”
I always find myself leaning towards some kind of coverage day to day. Depending on what I’ve got going on will determine whether I’m going to use our new Softlight Skin-Smoothing Foundation or our Tinted Serum, which gives sheer, lightweight coverage. Normally when you use matte foundations they end up making you feel a bit dull. I want to have really dewy, hydrated looking skin, but I also don’t want to look oily in different lights. Creating a soft matte finish is ultimately what I want for my skin but it’s important to create that in a way that doesn’t make you look lifeless. And that is very much what I love about the finish of our Skin-Smoothing Foundation, which I apply when I want more of a polished look – perhaps for an evening event. A liquid foundation does require a bit more time and effort when it comes to the application process. It’s not such a throw-on product, but having said that, it blends seamlessly and beautifully. Our Tinted serum is my go-to everyday super quick and easy option that gets me out the door. When applying foundation, always start in the areas where you want more coverage. For me, it’s always under my eyes, around my nose, centre of my chin and then blend it up and just keep building it.